10.09.08
Magnetic Paper – Make Your Own Magnetic Poetry!
My most recent “new favorite thing” is magnetic paper! Maybe you already know about this, but I just found it yesterday, and I’m so happy I did!
One of the stations I use in my language arts class is a Magnetic Poetry station. A few students at a time can use a variety of words that I have collected over the years and arrange them on a magnetic white board to create poems, story ideas, or just spend time working with words. (Since the students use a white board, they can also use a dry erase marker to fill in words, symbols and other ideas that they do not find in the magnets.) The students then record whatever they came up with at the station in their Writers’ Notebook and then can continue to work on it later if they choose. (For homework the students are required to reflect on what they did during the station even if they choose not to continue writing the piece.)
The students really enjoy this station and are sometime surprised with the what they can write! Since the available words are not always part of their existing vocabulary, they come up with some pretty new stuff and really get a kick out of it.
As a long term homework assignment, we have a spooky story contest due at the end of this month and I wanted to find a way to provide some class time for the students to continue thinking about and working on their story without devoting instruction time to the project since it is an “at home” project. I have Halloween and spooky pictures ready to go for the picture prompt station, but I also wished that I could find a set of magnetic poetry words for Halloween to use at that station.
And that’s when I had my bright idea to try to make my own. I checked the craft store to see if they had some kind of magnetic paper, and sure enough they did. I typed up and printed out a page full of spooky, scary, Halloween words and will bring them in for the students to use in the station tomorrow.
I was so pleased with how well they came out, I got a little carried away and made another sheet of personalized magnetic words including my students’ names, my own and other teachers’ names, and a variety of other words that are relevant to what they are studying and interested in. I am going to add those words to the supply in class as well. I think it will make the station that much more interesting for them.
I think it could be a fun birthday or holiday gift to give someone a set of customized magnetic words. It might also make a good gift for someone with a new job (and office with a magnetic filing cabinet), getting their first apartment (and own refrigerator), going away to college, or for a newlywed couple. This paper is also great for printing your own magnetic frames or other lightweight magnets.
The paper I bought is from a company called Royal Brights and cost about $15 for a package of 5 sheets. I bought it on sale at Michael’s for $12 yesterday. (If you are making magnetic poetry words, that works out to about 1/5 the cost of buying them already made!)
~Melissa 
09.27.08
Do you write to remember?
Several posts ago I asked the question “Why do you write?” I asked this question not because it was a new question, but because there really are so many different responses for why we write. We have reasons that are different from one another, but we each also have multiple reasons of our own.
In planning lessons for my students, I try to give them as many reasons as possible to write. I hope that through these opportunities to write for different purposes and audiences that they will develop an answer to the “Why do you write?” question for themselves, as well as foster the necessary skills to write well in a variety of situations.
At the same time, I am teaching my students other concepts beyond writing itself, and can’t help but think that writing with and about the concepts will also help them to remember these other concepts. We journal, we document, we archive, we write to record information, but does the act of writing ever help you feel like you remember what you wrote about even better? Does the act of writing about something create a relationship between the writer and that thing? (I am not necessarily referring to copying or taking notes in class – though there is a correlation there – but actually generating the ideas and writing them down.) I do think/know that it does for some people and to an extent, but I am curious to know what you all think and if you have certain strategies that you use which involve writing and remembering. Please share your thoughts.
~Melissa
09.07.08
Teaching the Personal Narrative
In the beginning of the school year, we always begin with teaching the students to write about their own lives. (They are the experts, after all!) I have taught units before where students write a small vignette (which I always feel is similar to a prose poem – and actually kind of difficult for middle schoolers to do well) and units where they write an autobiography covering their entire (or most of their) life up to that moment. They are two very different types of writing! This year, our piece is a personal narrative, so I think that it falls somewhere between the two genres that I have taught before. It is not as event-centered as a full autobiography, but is more like traditional prose writing than the vignette. The samples of my own writing that I have used in the past aren’t quite what I want to model for my students this year. I’m hoping that they will choose one or two aspects from their life to write in great detail about. So, it is back to the drawing board (or back to the notebook!) for me.
I started writing a new piece today that I will model for my students. I began, of course, with the first stage of the writing process (prewriting) and brainstormed what I could possibly write about. I used listing, stream of consciousness (which to them I just call “writing what you are thinking”), and outlining in my prewriting stage. I came up right away with what I would write about. (See, following the process works!)
I continued on to the second stage (drafting) and quickly became aggravated at myself for “telling” a lot of the story rather than “showing” it. As I was drafting, I kept trying to “show” but it was much easier and faster for me to “tell” instead. So, I gave in and got a lot of the narrative written out – though I was very unhappy with the quality of the writing. Then, I realized that this was actually a good thing because I can use this to model for my students how to truly utilize the next stage of the process (revising) and how sometimes it is “radical surgery.”
Next, I will go back and rewrite all of the “telling” so that it is actually “showing” in a new draft and will make the narrative much more like what it is supposed to be. This first draft (though not the type of writing I ultimately want my piece to be) is really important in the process because it is taking me to the next step. I didn’t set out to have these things happen in the piece that I will model for my students, but I am very glad that they did!
Today is Day 9 of my 1,000 Word Pledge, and I have been at 1,000+ words each day. It does feel really good to keep track of the progress. This was a good idea. How is everyone else doing?
~Melissa
08.24.08
New Category – “Education and School Related Things”
Well, there are just a few days before it is officially back to school. I will be going back both as a teacher and a student this fall…and this is the first fall that I have ever done so! When I went back to school for teaching, I went full time and did not work. Then, when I started working, I didn’t take any classes for the first year and didn’t take any the second year until the spring semester. Wow! I am feeling the excitement and anxiousness from both sides of classroom this fall! (I do have my first day of school outfits – one for teaching and one for graduate school – already picked out just like I did when I was a little girl!)
I am particularly excited to begin teaching in a new district this year and can’t wait to meet my students (as well as all of my new colleagues)! I am also pretty happy to know that I am (finally!) on the last phase of my MA and having the end in site is a great motivating factor. It has been a long and challenging process for me to work on this degree, so it will be especially rewarding when it is complete.
I will use this new category to post education related thoughts and updates on all of my new adventures. (Also, there may be some duplicate posts here from things happening over at my classroom blog, www.missmorrisblog.wordpress.com. Teachers especially may want to check that out after the first few weeks of school and see what we are up to over there.)
I hope that all of the teachers who read this blog will add some of their own educational insight and wisdom to these posts as well.
Happy learning!
~Melissa
08.23.08
“THE WAY IT IS”
THE WAY IT IS
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the the thread.
-William Stafford
These lines came to me today in a back to school letter. Now, I am sure that the intention was for the “thread” to symbolize our reasons for teaching and dedication to the profession. I can certainly perceive that in the poem and can of course apply it to my interpretation because there are many obstacles and challenges that teachers face all the time. One must be dedicated to teach; it is a given.
However, I can’t help but also think that a more appropriate explanation for what the “thread” in the poem is, is really love – true love, unconditional love, unwavering love. I believe that love can carry you through any tragedy or difficult situation. It isn’t easy for others to always recognize it or understand it if they aren’t a part of it, and I feel those people are the ones to whom you might have to “explain about the thread.” People who have never experienced this kind of love may not know how to handle the explanation, but I think that anyone who has ever known true love will understand.
The thread is what gives you hope when to everyone else there appears to be none.
The thread is what makes the pain hurt a little less and the joy heal a little more.
But, then what about the people who don’t have a “thread” (whether the thread is a dedication to their career or true love or both)? What happens then, with each tragedy and difficult situation when there is no thread? How can those people get back on track when they don’t know where the track is? What if you are still holding on to the thread, but it breaks? Is it ever too late to spin a new thread?
What do you all think? What is the “thread” in the poem to you? Please share your thoughts.
~Melissa
